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| May 15, 2000 | ||
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Say No India's decision not to send troops to Sri Lanka is eminently sensible
It is a lesson India has learnt the hard way. In 1987, Rajiv Gandhi sent the Indian Peace-Keeping Force (IPKF) across the Palk Straits and triggered a series of events that eventually cost him his life -- and his country much goodwill. There was no clarity as to the IPKF's mandate. In the midst of its stay in Sri Lanka, it was suddenly told that the Tamils it was supposed to protect were actually the enemy -- but that the battle with the LTTE had to be fought with kid gloves. It was the sort of strategy that made the Charge of the Light Brigade seem a well-planned mission. It won India no friends, reducing its leverage in Sri Lanka to such an extent that today Delhi can only hope for the Tamil-Sinhalese conflict to be settled by negotiation but do nothing about it. Most tragically, Rajiv's blunder lost India soldiers who didn't even understand the cause they died for. The IPKF episode was one of the darkest in independent India's history. To repeat it would be a folly -- even if the alternative is to sit back and watch a stubborn regime slug it out with a crazed militia. Hijacked Maharaja In
India, the P word is as much about privatisation as about patronage and
parody. Take the debate over the sale of Air-India (A-I). The venerable
civil aviation minister has proposed that no foreign partner be allowed to
own more than 25 per cent of A-I's equity and in no circumstances should
the Government hand over management control to a private company. The Aside from a handful, nobody in any position of authority in the Government is serious about selling off A-I. It is not surprising why. This summer -- as, indeed, every summer -- ministers and senior bureaucrats are busy trying to get their relatives and other cronies seats on A-I flights to the West. The international air travel sector is, after all, one of the last vestiges of the shortage economy. Flights between countries are governed by bilateral agreements. Since A-I -- expected loss in 2000-01: Rs 200 crore -- is incapable of increasing frequency, it prevents foreign airlines from doing so too. The ultimate loser is the ordinary passenger, not the freebie junkies who infest Lutyens' Delhi. The civil aviation minister's mindset is more suited to run the Bihar State Road Transport Corporation. Why is he wasting it on a global airline? |
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Alarming
as the civil war in Sri Lanka may be, the Indian Government's unequivocal
ruling out of any military intervention is most welcome. Diplomacy is that
rare area where inaction is sometimes the best action -- and India's Lanka
policy could benefit from a certain studied inertness. With the Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) having vanquished the Sri Lankan Army in the
northern Jaffna
peninsula, there were suggestions that the Indian Air Force would assist
in the evacuation of Colombo's remaining forces in the region. As a
corollary came speculation that President Chandrika Kumaratunga would
invite the Indian Army to help keep her country intact. While the
aspiration of a united Sri Lanka may be perfectly desirable, India is not
the agency to achieve it. Crudely put, somebody else's war is not this
country's problem.
minister
is by no means alone in his perception; across party lines many in the
political class are in complete agreement with him. They share the belief
that private and international airlines are just dying to buy into A-I,
that India's "national carrier" is the ultimate prize the global
aviation industry covets. Yet this is an airline that has continuously
lost money since 1995-96, that is held to ransom by overpaid and utterly
irresponsible pilots who happily expel bona fide passengers to take their
family members on free trips. A-I is not a business enterprise, it is the
economic equivalent of gangrene.